The Tennessee Department of Transportation recently reconnected cross-state sections of I-40 to North Carolina after repairing damage caused by Hurricane Helene flooding in 2024.
[Above photo by the Tennessee DOT]
That linkage follows reconstruction efforts recently completed by the North Carolina Department of Transportation; work that now allows motorists to travel between the two states on I-40 for the first time since September 2024.
In October 2024, the Tennessee DOT reopened I-40 to one traffic lane in each direction between MM 446 and MM 451in Cosby, TN, abutting the NC state line. On March 1, NCDOT partially reopened its portion of I-40, permitting travel between states.
Due to anticipated slowdowns and lengthy delays, Tennessee DOT said in a statement that it recommends that motorists traveling into North Carolina take I-81 North to I-77 South in Virginia or I-81 North to I-26 East as the reopened sections of I-40 will have lowered speeds, with a 40-mile-per-hour limit in Tennessee and a 35-mile-per-hour limit in North Carolina.
The agency added that only one lane of traffic is open in each direction on I-40 across approximately 12 miles; that there are no shoulders and no emergency pull-off lanes within the highway’s still-active work zone, spanning MM 446 in Tennessee to MM 7 in North Carolina; that there are no exits in the work zone with easy access to gas stations or convenience stores; and that vehicles over 8.5 feet in width will not be allowed to use I-40.
Sean Duffy, secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, visited North Carolina and Tennessee in mid-February to assess the damage along I-40 caused by Hurricane Helene. During that visit, he said the USDOT and U.S. Forest Service worked together to help USDOT obtain a “Special Use” permit to use rock from Forest Service land and extract construction materials from the local river.
That permit allows NCDOT to get construction materials from a nearby river, just 1 to 3 miles away, instead of transporting them from 20 to 50 miles away; a process that would have tripled both the cost and duration of the ongoing I-40 repair project.
Top Stories
